Democrats Have Nothing to Offer But Fear Itself

Governing: Asked why the Senate hasn't produced a budget in three years, the head of the Democratic Party instead stoked fear about the "Romney-Ryan budget that ends Medicare as we know it." FDR, call your office.

'The Romney/Ryan budget is painful for Americans," head Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on that same Fox News program.

Her comments are tame compared with what other Democrats have said, including President Obama, who called Rep. Paul Ryan's budget "thinly veiled social Darwinism" that would "impose a radical vision on our country" and that is "antithetical to our entire history."

So what do Democrats have to offer instead? Nothing.

The Senate hasn't produced a budget since 2009 and refuses to this year, which means that once again the red-ink hemorrhaging federal government will be operating without any spending guidelines. Obama's budget plan was so ludicrous that not one House Democrat would vote for it.

The Democrats' refusal to govern hardly ends here.

The country faces monumental problems — a national debt crisis, an entitlement crisis, an energy crisis, to say nothing of the lingering economic crisis.

But on issue after issue, Democrats have absolutely nothing constructive to offer — no entitlement-reform ideas, no budget-reform proposals, no debt-reduction plans, no credible energy policies.

Or at least they refuse to come clean about how they'd address them.

Instead, they reflexively attack the Republicans who are actually proposing fixes, calling them terrorists and hostage-takers who are waging war on women, want to throw seniors off the cliff and savage the poor.

Today's Democrats, in short, have just one public policy proposal — scare voters into re-electing them. For example:

Entitlements: A report this week from Social Security and Medicare trustees underscored the immediacy of the crisis facing these programs. Social Security is already running in the red, and will exhaust its "Trust Fund" before today's 44-year-olds retire.

Medicare's trust fund, meanwhile, will go bust in just 12 years — and that's assuming lawmakers actually make the draconian cuts in doctor and hospital payments they've put off each year.

But you'd be hard-pressed to find any Democratic reform plan on the table that would even begin to fix either problem. Instead, they attack Republicans who have the chutzpah to propose — and vote on — reform plans of their own and mindlessly repeat the charge that Republicans want to "end Medicare as we know it."

Debt crisis: With the nation piling on $5 trillion in debt since Obama took office, you'd think Democrats would be offering something, anything, to address this crisis. But their only contribution to the public debate has been to demagogue Ryan's relatively timid effort to get runaway federal spending under control.

Governing: Asked why the Senate hasn't produced a budget in three years, the head of the Democratic Party instead stoked fear about the "Romney-Ryan budget that ends Medicare as we know it." FDR, call your office.

'The Romney/Ryan budget is painful for Americans," head Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on that same Fox News program.

Her comments are tame compared with what other Democrats have said, including President Obama, who called Rep. Paul Ryan's budget "thinly veiled social Darwinism" that would "impose a radical vision on our country" and that is "antithetical to our entire history."

So what do Democrats have to offer instead? Nothing.

The Senate hasn't produced a budget since 2009 and refuses to this year, which means that once again the red-ink hemorrhaging federal government will be operating without any spending guidelines. Obama's budget plan was so ludicrous that not one House Democrat would vote for it.

The Democrats' refusal to govern hardly ends here.

The country faces monumental problems — a national debt crisis, an entitlement crisis, an energy crisis, to say nothing of the lingering economic crisis.

But on issue after issue, Democrats have absolutely nothing constructive to offer — no entitlement-reform ideas, no budget-reform proposals, no debt-reduction plans, no credible energy policies.

Or at least they refuse to come clean about how they'd address them.

Instead, they reflexively attack the Republicans who are actually proposing fixes, calling them terrorists and hostage-takers who are waging war on women, want to throw seniors off the cliff and savage the poor.

Today's Democrats, in short, have just one public policy proposal — scare voters into re-electing them. For example:

Entitlements: A report this week from Social Security and Medicare trustees underscored the immediacy of the crisis facing these programs. Social Security is already running in the red, and will exhaust its "Trust Fund" before today's 44-year-olds retire.

Medicare's trust fund, meanwhile, will go bust in just 12 years — and that's assuming lawmakers actually make the draconian cuts in doctor and hospital payments they've put off each year.

But you'd be hard-pressed to find any Democratic reform plan on the table that would even begin to fix either problem. Instead, they attack Republicans who have the chutzpah to propose — and vote on — reform plans of their own and mindlessly repeat the charge that Republicans want to "end Medicare as we know it."

Debt crisis: With the nation piling on $5 trillion in debt since Obama took office, you'd think Democrats would be offering something, anything, to address this crisis. But their only contribution to the public debate has been to demagogue Ryan's relatively timid effort to get runaway federal spending under control.

Energy: For two years running, the country has suffered historically high gasoline prices. So what do Democrats do? Do they offer any credible plans to expand domestic oil production? Nope, instead they try to scapegoat the industry and accuse Republicans of being in the pocket of Big Oil.

And when Republicans tried to force construction of the Obama-blocked Keystone XL pipeline, which will eventually bring 700,000 barrels a day of much-needed oil to Texas refineries, Rep. Henry Waxman said "they want to use legislation as a way to act like terrorists."

Then again, what choice do Democrats have other than fear-mongering? They certainly can't run on their record. For two years, they enjoyed huge majorities in the House and Senate along with a willing partner in the White House, and got everything they wanted. We've seen the results:

The worst economic recovery since the Great Depression, a national debt that's now bigger than the GDP, a massively wasteful stimulus program, skyrocketing oil and gas prices, high unemployment, stagnating incomes, and falling home prices.

So their only option is to try to distract voters with scary campfire tales about evil Republicans. The real horror story, however, would be if voters rewarded the Democrats' empty fear campaign this November.

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